Title of Project: Lakehead University Northwestern Ontario High School Mathematics Competition

Year of Competition: 2007-2009

Grant amount: $1500/yr for three years

Project Duration: Multi-Year

Type of Report: Annual

Period Covered: 2009

Description of Activity:

The Seventh Annual Lakehead University Northwestern Ontario High School Mathematics Competition was held on April 23, 2009 at Lakehead
University's campus. Over 125 high school students spent the day on campus, plus another 42 students in more remote regions of Northwestern Ontario took part in their own schools. This was our best ever attendance in terms of participants from outside the city of Thunder Bay.

Our contest consists of two parts. In the morning, the students write the individual portion of the contest. In the afternoon, students from the same school are broken up into teams and take part in the team portion of the competition. As part of the contest, students are given free t-shirts and a free lunch.

Prizes are awarded to the top ten students in both the senior and junior categories for the individual contest. We were able to announce these winners by the end of the contest day (just after the team competition has ended). Prizes are also awarded to the top three teams in both the senior and junior categories. We also have another set of prizes for students who participated at their own schools.

For the second year in a row, we were able to award an entry prize of $500 to the highest scoring Grade 12 student who will be attending Lakehead University in the Fall 2009.

Assessment of Effectiveness:

Our contest is intended to encourage and to stimulate the mathematical talents and interests of local area students.
As well, we are interested in involving schools
in the rural areas of Northwestern Ontario, areas that
do not necessarily have the same opportunities as the more
urban regions of the country.

As outlined in our grant application, our goal was to use the CMS Endowment Grant to attract more schools in the rural regions of Northwestern Ontario. (For the first four years, we only had schools from within Thunder Bay participate in the contest). This past year Lake Superior High School (Terrace Bay), Geraldton Composite School and Wawa High School participated in the contest, with 42 students writing the exam at their own school. Money from the CMS Endowment grant were used to pay for prizes and mailing costs associated
to the participation of these schools.

Besides the grant received from the CMS, our contest has received
donations and/or prizes from

TD Canada Trust

BMO Nesbitt Burns

Thunder Bay Ventures

Thunder Bay Hydro

TBT Engineering

Engineering Northwest

Future Plans (if any):

We are already planning for next year's contest. We also plan to apply for the next CMS Endowment grant competition in 2010.